We’ve been sent the following photographs – all taken today (2nd December at 1pm). These photos show again:
- the unwillingness or inability of Glen Eira City Council to do a damn thing about the MRC contravening the so called ‘agreement’.
- The ‘agreement’ stated that car parking in the centre of the racecourse was only available on main racing days and 10 ‘special events’. Is this a ‘special event’? If it is, then we point out that there was no notification to residents; no adequate traffic management plan; and how can something that goes on for 2 weeks be considered as 1 single ‘special event’. Add on the flower show, the month long circus, and other bits and pieces and the length of time that is occupied stretches out to months and not 10 days!
- What have our wonderful trustees and Newton done about any of this?
Glen Eira Debates 
December 2, 2013 at 4:47 PM
Business as usual – Glen Eira Council, our illustrious 3 trustees and good old Southwick do absolutely nothing and the MRC does whatever it wants to whenever it wants to.
With construction due to start soon on the mega boundary to boundary Caulfield Ghetto (a.k. C60), MRC use of, and pressure on, the piddly little bit of the racecourse reserve that is left to the public will intensify. The above pictures show the 2-3 old agreement has been breached and needs to be dealt with – it should not be ignored or result in a new agreement which further favours the MRC.
The agreement was that the centre of the racecourse reserve would not be available for public use on major racing days (2) and 10 special event days. Public access to, and use of the park, would be available to the public on all other days. Any one want to take their kids over to play the “poo” game or fish or kick a footy in this.
December 2, 2013 at 5:24 PM
No Councillor, especially those that are trustees (Esakoff, Lipshutz and Hyams aka the unholy triumvirate who think their views are the only ones that count) will utter a murmur. Even those that are trustees and are appointed as trustees by virtue of their being a Councillor and therefore represent the community unbelievably think their obligation to the trustees is greater than their obligations to community.
December 2, 2013 at 4:54 PM
It was a traffic jamb at the tunnel roundabout at 4pm today. Where is the stop/slow traffic management group, at least someone should benefit….not just the MRC
December 2, 2013 at 5:09 PM
Try getting around the roundabout from Station street into Kambrook road any weekday between 5.30 and 7 and you’re banked back right up to the tabaret – and it’s worse when Monash is still in mid term.
This council has to be sacked and sued.
December 2, 2013 at 5:41 PM
Council is a little preoccupied at the moment – it’s busy trying to save face after all the hoohaa re the removal of 39 trees in Caulfield Park. Rather than look at an alternative proposal presented by Friends of Caulfield Park that saves all but 4 of the trees, they are trying to bluff residents with lame excuses (we have to do it because we signed the contract and we could be sued* if we don’t …. or how about …. we need a buffer zone for insurance purposes – yet insurances are taken out by the individual playing clubs and neither Cricket Australia nor any other Council has heard of the buffer zone requirement.
*wish the residents could sue them for all the things they said they would do but haven’t done. I’d like to know why they signed the contract before residents were informed or why they sign agreements that bind them but not the contractor (eg. Duncan McKinnon Pavillion disaster).
What’s the bet that the chainsaws will appear tomorrow and the next time around (in about 2-3 years time when they decide the replacement trees have to be removed for some equally spurious reason) they revert to the McKinnon Reserve Chainsaw Massacre approach (179 trees felled all at once).
December 2, 2013 at 5:57 PM
The dust (sandy gritty stuff) that is kicked up in the tunnels is gobsmacking – what d*ckhead decided the tunnel was to provide both vehicle and pedestrian access. Visibility in the tunnel is minimal (headlights don’t help) and car movements spew the dust out onto Booran, Glen Eira and Kambrook Roads.
The very least both Council and MRC could do is have someone handing out dust masks and protective clothing for pedestrians and pay for the cleaning of the surrounding houses while they come up with a better alternative
December 2, 2013 at 6:15 PM
The management of the agreement between council and the MRC has been a festering sore for years and years. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 3 instances where traffic management plans were either non existent, or residents received no information or received it far too late. Council promised to do something about this. Their promises don’t seem to amount to much.
The only thing that Glen Eira has done is adopted some Penhalluriack’s vision but well after he is gone and the deal is signed – but not enforced. It is verging on soap opera. Council keeps making grandiose statements, issuing wonderful media releases, but the effect of all this remains zero. The mrc continues on its merry way. I would even doubt if council has issued them with any infringement notices for some of these infractions. I doubt even further whether council even considers taking them to vcat if the infringement notices aren’t paid. If rolling over and playing dead by council is the chosen way of dealing with the mrc, then the public should be spared all the expense and tedium of useless policy statements and media releases. They are nauseating in the extreme.
December 2, 2013 at 7:13 PM
What amazes me about the Agreement is not that the MRC ignores most of it, but that some idiots in State Parliament, both Labor and Liberal, seriously misled Parliament about the Agreement and claimed that it was Council that was breaching it. It shows that MRC still has substantial clout in Spring St such that parliamentarians would leave themselves so exposed to allegations of being suborned.
It’s already been pointed out that the Agreement covers access to the centre in which the public is excluded most of the time, especially race days (including 3 major race days) and 10 event days. Neither Council nor MRC appear that keen to document which days are “event days”. If it’s on their websites, it’s well-hidden. Anyway the Agreement is unenforceable until such time as State Government brings management of the precinct into the 21st Century.
For all the talk of prosecutions, it’s not clear what the breach is under the Local Law. Maybe it’s a festival and not being “operated in compliance with the ‘Good Neighbour Code of Practice for a Circus or Carnival, April 1993’, or where permitted under the Glen Eira Planning Scheme”. We’re surrounded by circuses, whether in White Hall, State Parliament, or Canberra.
December 2, 2013 at 7:49 PM
Plenty of stuff council could get them on if they were fair dinkum. For starters the number and size of advertising hoardings that go up on the fences and which they get plenty of dough for. Some are supposed to have permits. I’d lay odds that the mrc doesn’t even apply for a permit and does what it wants when it wants and council does bugger all about it.
December 2, 2013 at 10:22 PM
The 3 major race days have come and gone as have 6 of the 10 event days (Caravan and Camping Show 7-12 March). And of course, another 1 of the 10 went today. No sure how long this purely commercial event is to run – sign up on Sunday said 1/12 – 24/12 but that sign has since disappeared.
As for all the dust in the tunnel – the ventilation requirement has been a known need since the supposed new park (really the park that was neglected for over a 100 years) was opened. The MRC promised to make it a priority – so much for their promises.
December 2, 2013 at 9:56 PM
What is the event that has been going on for 2 weeks? I thought today was a Union picnic day. Also, I don’t remember the circus being there this year, and the flower show, if you are referring to the Gardening Australia expo, hasn’t been there for a couple of years (I think after the promoter went bust).
December 2, 2013 at 10:10 PM
The current event is the Xmas Spectacular and it started on the weekend.
December 2, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Calling Southwick, come in Southwick.
You claimed how wonderful the new park was (even though it had been a park for 150 years) and really stretched it when saying how glad you were to have a hand it’s creation …. so where are you now that this wonderful asset can become a car park whenever the MRC finds a commercial operation that needs it.
Oh, and don’t even think about trying that line that the area was still available for public use, somehow wandering around cars parked on grass does align with the purposes of open space.
December 2, 2013 at 10:36 PM
Stitches & craft show – October 24 -27 2013
Caravan show – March 7 -12, 2013
VCE careers – 8-11 May, 2013
Education show – August 8-9, 2013
Aged Care & Disability Expo – April 17-18, 2013
Train exhibition – 24-25 August, 2013
Aged Services trades – 30-31 October, 2013
Travel Expo – 12 – 14 September, 2013
Bridal Expo – 25th July, 2013
Plus plenty of conferences and other trade shows/exhibitions
December 3, 2013 at 7:09 PM
How many of these used the centre of the reserve for car parking?
December 4, 2013 at 12:22 AM
Races have been called off at Sandown for a time so the rac es from there have come to Caulfield too!